Oh, So Many Things

Oh, So Many Things

There are so many things to write about this week it is hard to choose.  There is Herman Cain, admitting his father had told him not to get into any trouble, so he sat out the civil rights movement when a young man.   Although one of the funniest Cain comments was his assertion that Blacks who vote Democratic have been brainwashed.  Using his logic, those, like himself, who mindlessly support the white, right-wing might be accused of suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. 

There is the rejection of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to even allow President Obama’s jobs bill to get to the floor for an open and honest debate.  Remember when the Republicans several years ago were accusing the Democrats of not allowing something to come to an “up or down vote”?  

Then we could discuss the protests taking place in New York, Washington, D.C., and some cities on the west coast as well. Some commentators have dismissed them as mobs, or hippies (hadn’t heard that one in a long time), and other negative terms.  I have also heard and read lots of comments that the protesters don’t know what they want.  Since there are so many of them, it is impossible to say what ‘they’ want.  But if I were a tad younger I would be there with them, and I can tell you what makes me really angry about our present political and economic climate.

A monumental lack of justice.

On the justice issue we hear lots of comments about Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, jobs, greed, and so on.  But the most egregious injustice is the proliferation of private prisons.  The quotes below are from Global Research, 3/10/08, Vicky Pelaez, The Prison Industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery.   This information is seldom made public, but occasionally it oozes to the surface.

“Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance.  For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold.  They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time.  All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of .25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country.  According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.  …From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000.  In 1990 it was one million.  Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100 with 62,000 inmates.  It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.”

The proliferation of anti-immigrant laws directly adds to this private prison population, and, in my opinion, is the main objective of these laws.  Feeding on the worst of American xenophobia, legislators who receive large campaign contributions from these private prison corporations like The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of  America, are more than happy to pass any laws that will increase the prison population.  The infamous AB 1070 in Arizona was the direct effort to increase the prison population, which could then be contracted out.

These young, and not so young protesters, know there is something terribly wrong in this country.  They may not know precisely what it is or how to fix it, but they are truly on the right track, and I send my good thoughts and blessings their way.  May they stay non-violent.

Dylan Ratigan, GetMoneyOut.com, has a petition he presented to Federal Legislators today with some 144,000 signatures gathered in just nine days.  This petition is quite simple.  Have a constitutional amendment making it illegal to donate money to legislators.  Elections would be publicly funded, and, hallelujah, much shorter, campaign.  Several people have commented to me that it will never pass.  Perhaps not, but it has certainly started a great conversation.  If we can GetMoneyOut of our political process, we might actually get our government back, “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” 

As Pope Paul VI commented, “If you would have peace, work for justice.”  Not a bad banner for the protesters.